Name: Chicken Mayonnaise
Ingredients: cooked chicken (white meat only); pickled gherkin (coarsely minced); thick mayonnaise dressing; finely minced parsley; small round rolls (buttered, with most soft part removed)

Why it works: Chicken and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,449 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Chicken Mayonnaise

Ingredients

cooked chicken (white meat only)
pickled gherkin (coarsely minced)
thick mayonnaise dressing
finely minced parsley
small round rolls (buttered, with most soft part removed)

Directions

Cut the cooked chicken into small dice-shaped pieces.
Add the coarsely minced pickled gherkin to the chicken.
Cover the mixture lightly with thick mayonnaise dressing mixed with finely minced parsley.
Split and butter the small round rolls, removing most of the soft part.
Fill the rolls with the prepared chicken mixture and close them securely.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,314 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,040 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).